Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130035
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From staff, wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PLANK IS NO-WIN, MILLER SAYS
Abortion should be removed from Republican Party politics because it is the "most damaging, divisive, no-win issue facing the Virginia GOP," gubernatorial candidate Clinton Miller said Friday.At news conferences in Roanoke and Richmond, Miller said he will ask the Virginia State Republican convention to pass a resolution in June seeking to eliminate the anti-abortion language in the national party platform.
A similar move was suggested this winter by outgoing national Republican Chairman Richard Bond. "There is room in the party for all positions," said Miller, a state delegate from Shenandoah County. "We have to have room for all of these people to function."
Miller, whose own position on abortion closely parallels the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion, said GOP candidates cannot afford to be hampered by the strict national anti-abortion position.
"No election is won or lost on one issue . . . but unless this resolution is adopted at the state and national level it is going to be very difficult for a candidate with that plank to win," Miller said.
He called on his two rivals for the nomination, former Rep. George Allen of Charlottesville and retired Northern Virginia businessman Earle Williams, to join him in seeking to remove abortion as a party platform issue at the convention set to nominate one of them in June.
All three candidates favor parental notice for minors seeking abortions. Williams favors leaving abortions unrestricted during the first trimester of pregnancy; Allen said he would consider abortion restrictions based on scientific analysis of fetal viability, should the Supreme Court allow more state curtailment of abortions.
"It is an issue best decided between a woman, her doctor and God," Miller said.
Miller also ruled out accepting any other position on the state ticket. Some GOP insiders reportedly suggested Miller should run for lieutenant governor or attorney general instead.
"I'm running for governor," Miller said.
Allen spokesman Jay Timmons called Miller's proposal "grandstanding."
"It is because he has less than 1 percent of the delegate votes," by the Allen campaign count, Timmons said.
Ann Stone, chairman of the Alexandria-based lobbying group Republicans for Choice, said several other states have already done what Miller is proposing.
"We are seeing it a lot of places . . . some states are looking to 1996 to get the platform changed," Stone said.
Stone's group would rather see a compromise between anti-abortion and abortion-rights activists within the Republican Party.
"We would like new language. I think the two wings can come to common ground," Stone said. "To go from one position to no position looks like opportunism," she said.
Miller reportedly is running third in the race to line up delegates to the state convention in Roanoke June 4-5.
All three candidates are in Roanoke this weekend for a meeting of the state Republican Central Committee.
Keywords:
POLITICS